Better Place to Work. a: A New Sense of Motivation Leading to High Productivity

Since Taylor first identified the principles of scientific management, there has been a continuing evolution in thinking and best practices for how to create motivated employees who are more effective and efficient. In the 1950s and 1960s, thinkers like Abraham Maslow, Frederick Hertzberg and David McCelland argued that external rewards could make a difference. Most companies today create "incentives" as a result to reward workers financially and psychologically for doing a good and improving job. Since then, newer research has shown (by people like Teresa Amabile and her work in creativity) that the work itself can be designed in such a way as to stimulate higher effectiveness that comes from the worker's preference for doing the work. In essence, the work becomes fun and play, rather than drudgery.A Better Place to Work explains the new research on intrinsic motivation, and provides a number of intersting case histories that show the theory in practice. Some of these case histories will be familiar to you, such as Southwest Airlines (if you have flown with them or read Nuts!). Most will not, yet the examples are interesting, understandable and illuminative. I particularly liked the examples (like Apex) that explored success in creating a learning organization (paying for skills, offering education every night after work, and encouraging people to use what they have learned). The book is candid about what works and what does not. Although employee ownership can help create internal motivation, it is not sufficient of itself to allow that to occur. So you can learn how to be sure you get benefits from whatever you have done or decide to do on the ownership front. The American Management Association strongly endorses this book, because it provided a copy to all of its members when the book first came out. Reading about intrinsic motivation is a good idea. A better one is to then visit some of the companies listed and described in the book to get your own sense of what is going on in these companies. I hope you will enjoy your site visits!